Muscle Milk AMR: Coming home

The Muscle Milk team is looking to their home event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend to return to their winning ways after a difficult previous round on the east coast.

After spending the last couple of months working out of the Mark 1 Composites shop in Indianapolis, the team returned last week to their headquarters in Benicia, California, located only a couple of hours from the Monterey, CA race track.

Although the American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca is considered its home event, it's never really been a lucky circuit for the California-based crew.

The team has finished on the podium in its last two visits to the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course, but it hasn't been without difficulty.

In 2009, the team failed to complete the full race distance due to suspension damage and last season, they came back to finish second, after going seven laps down because a pebble had lodged itself behind the shift paddle.

Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing is hoping to change that this time around in the six-hour endurance race at Laguna Seca while looking to score maximum points and remain in the Championship hunt.

The team currently sits 24-points behind Dyson Racing in the points standings with only two races remaining.

Helping the team out and returning to his co-driving duties alongside Klaus Graf at Mazda Raceway will be Lucas Luhr, who missed out on the last round due to his racing commitment in the FIA GT1 World Championship where he continues to lead the driver's standings.

The Muscle Milk squad will not be the only team fielding an Aston Martin LMP1 car at Laguna Seca as the factory Aston Martin Racing team will be returning to the American Le Mans Series for the first time this year with their familiar blue and orange Gulf Oil liveried V12 powered DBR1-2.

The ModSpace American Le Mans Monterey race will go green on Saturday, September 17th at 1:30 p.m. PT and will be streamed live on ESPN3.com. Round 8 of the season will be broadcast on tape delay on ESPN2 Sunday, September 18 at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Klaus Graf, co-driver Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing
"Going to Laguna Seca is like coming home for the Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing team. Our race shop and the CytoSport company are just two hours north of the track and so we call this our home race on the ALMS calendar.
"With the race being a six hour event this will ask for a lot from both the drivers and team. We will do the race with just Lucas and I driving but I'm sure we'll perform at the same level as usual and push hard all the way.
"The layout of the Laguna Seca track is a very challenging one and the conditions change a lot with dirt coming on the race track and the temperature differences racing into the dark are quite dramatic. But I'm confident that our partner Michelin will have the right tires for the difficult conditions.
"I personally always look forward to this race as I like this part of the world very much."

Lucas Luhr, co-driver Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing
"I missed being with Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing at Baltimore and I'm looking forward to getting back to the United States after spending two weeks in China for a couple of GT1 races.
"Laguna Seca is one of the best tracks in what is a great part of the country. With the circuit being so close to the team's shop and CytoSport's head office, this will be a home race for the team. They had a tough weekend at the last race so I hope we can turn things around in front of the home crowd and do well to keep Klaus in the chase for the driver's championship.
"Once again, it won't be easy as Laguna Seca i